A Cultural Faux Pas
by Unsubstantiated Assertion
Summary: Seven years after they returned from Xadia, Callum proposes. He never would have anticipated Rayla's answer: "What? I thought we were already married?" Maybe he should have read up on Xadian courtship first.


I'm relatively new to the fandom (not much more recently than my first story) and so haven't been following much outside of here. But I've seen all the stories about "Rayllum month" and while I had no intentions of participating, the prompt for today lined up with an idea I'd been thinking about for awhile now. So here's a proposal story, though due to outstanding circumstances its technically coming in the day afterwards.

* * *

Everything had gone exactly as according to plan. They'd spent they day together away from their royal duties. Come nighttime he'd taken her on a romantic stroll, on a full moon no less, to a picnic where he had prepared her favorite dessert, moonberry surprise. Or the closest he could come to replicating it. After a week of practice it was a least close enough rather than inedible. Once that was done, they'd stargazed for awhile and when the moon was at its highest point Callum got down on knee, withdrew the ring Ezran had given him, and asked, "Rayla, will you marry me?"

He waited for her answer on pins and needles. He never expected what came next.

"...What?"

Callum's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach.

Noticing his distress, Rayla said "I mean, yes, sure, it's just... uh," a look of realization spread over her face, "Oh! This is a human thing, isn't it?"

Callum's despair shifted to a mixture of confusion and relief. "Yeah..." He said, a little sheepish. In retrospect, Callum realized he should have anticipated that elves might propose marriage differently.

"Sorry, I was just a little confused," Rayla scratched the back of neck, "since I thought we were already married."

That comment figuratively and literally knocked the wind out of Callum. It was his turn to sputter out a "What?!"

"Well we love each other, we live together, we," Rayla grinned, "'eat sandwiches' with each other. By Xadian standards, we're married."

While Rayla was speaking, Callum snapped the ring box shut and got to his feet.

"How? But? But we've been to weddings! Human ones and elf ones! How could we be married if we never had a wedding?"

"Weddings in Xadia aren't about gettin' married but about sayin' ya are to the public, mostly for politicians. Or if you have a big family or lots of friends who would want to congratulate you. I thought human weddings were just for exchanging alliances between kingdoms."

"No, well, yes. If you're royalty. But all humans have to propose and have a wedding to get married."

"And tha' back there was the proposin' part?" Rayla pointed to the now closed ring box in Callum's hand.

Callum nodded. "It's supposed to be a surprise. You get down on one knee and ask whoever to marry you, and then you give them the ring if they say yes."

"And I ruined the surprise."

"No, its my fault. I should've thought about whether humans and elves had different customs for marriage."

Ignoring him, Rayla scratched her chin in thought. "A surprise..."

Rayla moved in a blur. Callum couldn't tell if it was just her naturally fast reflexes or if she'd taken advantage of the full moon. Either way, before he could register what happened Rayla was now down on knee, the ring box snatched from his hand and open in hers.

"Callum, will _you_ marry _me_?"

"Yes," Callum said while chocking back a laugh and-or tears of joy. He grabbed Rayla by the shoulders and pulled her into an embrace. Surreptitiously, Rayla slipped the engagement ring onto one of Callum's fingers. She had no idea which finger, or even which hand, it was supposed to go on but wanted to get all this over with. She ended up putting it on his right pinky. Those extra fingers had to be used for something. Callum was too busy kissing her to object.

Rayla broke the kiss to ask, "So are we married now?"

Callum laughed. "I have no idea anymore."

* * *

Originally it was going to go on a little longer, with them going back to the castle where Ezran had set up an awkward surprise celebration complete with having trained Bait to blow a party horn. He would then get confused as to why Callum was wearing their mother's engagement ring, leading Callum to just remark "it's a long story." In the end I felt it was funny enough to include as a behind the scenes anecdote, but that the current end was more satisfying.


End file.
